Obama Says Confirmation Process Hurts Choosing Business Leaders

Dec. 5 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama says he is in
favor of choosing a business leader for his economic team in a
second term if talented executives can be convinced the U.S.
Senate confirmation process isn’t too disheartening.

“Not only is it something I’m considering, I’d love to do
it,” the president said on Bloomberg Television in his first
interview since winning re-election. “It’s something I would
have loved to have done in the first term.”

“One of the biggest problems we’ve got in terms of
recruiting business leaders into the administration is the
confirmation process has become so miserable, so drawn out, that
for successful folks to want to put themselves through that
process, you know, a lot of folks are just shying away,” he
said.

Obama’s advisers have considered Chief Executive Officer
Mohamed El-Erian of Pacific Investment Management Co., which
manages the world’s biggest bond fund, for a role in the
administration, said a person familiar with the matter. El-Erian
declined to comment on the possibility.

The president also sounded optimistic about the economy if
the administration and Congress can avoid a repeat of what he
called the “crisis” that preceded raising the nation’s debt
ceiling last year.

“America is poised to take off,” he said. “Let’s make
sure that we don’t have a self-inflicted wound, because there
are a lot of silly games played up on Capitol Hill.”

Obama today is scheduled to address more than 100 chief
executive officers at the quarterly meeting of the Business
Roundtable in Washington. He also plans to take questions.

Good Fit

On new cabinet appointments, three positions might be a
good fit for a business leader: secretary of the Treasury or
Commerce Department or director of the National Economic
Council, said two people familiar with the matter. It might also
be possible to create a high-level position or install an
executive as one of Obama’s three senior advisers, said the
people, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

While the Treasury and Commerce positions require Senate
confirmation, Obama can appoint the head of the National
Economic Council without the Senate’s approval.

The current head of the council is Gene Sperling, who
served in the same role during the Clinton administration. When
Lawrence Summers left that position at the end of 2010, Obama
considered at least one Wall Street executive, Roger Altman, the
founder of Evercore Partners Inc., for the job, along with
Richard Levin, president of Yale University.

He eventually settled on Sperling, who had been working at
the Treasury Department as a counselor to Secretary Timothy F.
Geithner.

Choosing Lew

For Treasury secretary, Obama may favor White House Chief
of Staff Jack Lew, said the people familiar with the matter.
Obama doesn’t appear to have made a decision and may wait until
the so-called fiscal cliff budget dispute is resolved, they
said.

“If we did run into problems in markets, I think he would
actually be the best person you could have in the job,” Buffett
said in response to a question from television interviewer
Charlie Rose on Nov. 27. “World leaders would have confidence
in him.”

The Commerce Department is headed by an acting secretary,
Rebecca Blank, an economist who took over for John Bryson after
he resigned in June for health reasons following a seizure.

Advisory Panels

If Obama does choose a business executive to fill the
commerce job, it could be Steve Case, co-founder of America
Online Inc., chairman of investment company Revolution LLC, and
a member of the president’s jobs council. Obama could also pick
from others on his advisory panels, whose members include the
chief executives of General Electric Co., Boeing Co. and Xerox
Corp.

In the Bloomberg TV interview, Obama acknowledged his
relationship with the business community is “skewed,” and he
laid the blame on some of the “tough things like health-care
reform and most particularly around Wall Street reform.”

During the presidential campaign, Obama said he wanted to
create a “secretary of business,” streamline federal agencies
and improve relations with business leaders.

“We should have one secretary of business instead of nine
different departments that are dealing with things like giving
loans to SBA or helping companies with exports,” Obama in an
Oct. 29 interview on MSNBC. “There should be a one-stop shop.”